Windows XP toolbar woes

I have some issues with my Start menu toolbar. I have the quicklaunch toolbar open, next to it the primary toolbar that containing the usual list of active programs, etc. then below it, it seems I have a mirror of said primary toolbar, and below that is an empty toolbar. Neither of these show up on the toolbar list. Oh, and I have the language toolbar on the right, but thats besides the point. All toolbars are movable at least.

Yes that is the toolbars list I mentioned. the duplicate bar and the empty bar have the same options (or lack thereof) and the only two toolbars that show up as being enabled are the quick launch toolbar and the language toolbar.

since there must be toolbars specific for each user, and possibly one for 'all' users, it may be somehow you have got three toolbar registry entries combined into one (sharing the same registry id in other words).

try dragging one toolbar on top of another - do they coalesce, or refuse to join or what?

I contributed to another thread with a toolbar problem - the pop-up assists for the notification toolbar (the one with the clock in), had gone behind the toolbar. I also found one at work that had done the same thing. Easily fixed, I just set and reset the toolbar property boxes. But this suggests to me either (a) a recent MS update has wrecked things (b) there is a novel piece of malware circulating. We should all watch this one closely.

First of all, this 'toolbar' is called the Taskbar: this consist of:
Start button to the left> Quick Launch Toolbar and the Notification Area all the way to the right. Additional Toolbars can be added to the Taskbar using a right click on the Taskbar> Toolbars and checking any you want to show.

Of course, Start is obvious. Quick Launch hold shortcuts to programs and apps you use frequently. The Notification Area has icons for running programs or processes such as the anti-virus program. It also holds the Volume icon, network/connection icons and any other you have designated 'always show'.

The mid-section of the Taskbar shows all active or minimized Windows. The Taskbar should be kept locked. Yours is not. Right click on the Taskbar> check 'lock the Taskbar'. This is probably why your is so misshaped!

When the Taskbar is unlocked, the series of 'dots' appears at each end, called a handle. To move or condense, you hold the left mouse button down on the 'handle' and move up, down, right or left.

You show two 'menu boxes' above the Taskbar. I don't know why they're visible- they should only display when you right click. If you notice on any of them, the 'lock the Taskbar' is not checked.

I don't know why you have a color palette here either. That is usually only displayed on Paint or Word. You need to get rid of all this junk so you can see what you need to get to. I strongly suggest to right click on the Taskbar> Toolbars> remove the check by "everything" except the Quick Launch toolbar. You don't need 'toolbars' for all this stuff cluttering up the screen!

You also have an usually large number of icons in the Notification Area by the clock. Most of these will be representing programs, apps that started at boot and are running in the background. You don't need "anything" starting on boot "except" the anti-virus program, firewall if you have one, touch-pad if it's a laptop and network process if you have a network set up. Nothing else!

It just hit me. You don't really have "three toolbars". You have one tool bar that somehow got resized!

Try the following

Unlock the toolbar

Slowly move your cursor (toolbar must be unlocked when doing this!) to just between the top of the topmost spot of the toolbars and your desktop area. You should see your cursor icon change to a vertical up/down arrow.

When the up/down arrow appears, click and drag the cursor to resize your toolbar. Pull it down to reduce the number of tool bar lines you see

firstly, I appreciate the explanation bobbye, but I do know how to work the taskbar (for the most part anyways, elsewise I wouldn't ask for help here); its name escaped me and I am rather embarrassed for that.

The Color palate was infact MSPAINT; I was copying the screenshots into that and resizing them for this thread. Forgive me for the confusion.

Yes I know I have a lot of stuff in my system tray, but a majority are there for a reason, so you don't need to tell me I need to remove stuff.

I keep my taskbar either two or three lines long, that is normal. What is not normal is that the task area is being duplicated, and there is one "toolbar" that doesn't do anything.

It only does this on that account. The main account I use does not have this problem.

Okay, madboyv, no problem. But I strongly suggest you keep the Taskbar locked. The images you left show it unlocked.

There are many users who don't realize the significance of the icons in the Notification Area. So I frequently drop a tip about them. My philosophy on this and any other computer board is that the user can take what they want and ignore the rest.

I find this board in particular difficult to assist because rarely does the person asking the question provide system information.

Bobbye: what kind of information do you want? Also, it was unlocked because I was fiddling with it trying to get rid of all these extra toolbars. I happen to follow the same advice you have given, and I even give it to others. =)

madboyv1, don't get bent out of shape! First, not all users are aware of the 'lock' function and the problems that can occur if Taskbar or toolbar are not locked. As for information I''d like to see when a question is presented: here's a template available to users on another forum. Once the user fills it in, then the info is displayed whenever that user starts a thread:

On my Windows XP Pro I have 2 user accounts. On one account everything works OK and this is how the good one works:

I right click on the XP taskbar and choose Toolbars and then I can see a list of things such as Desktop, Quick Launch, NetSpeedMonitor, Nero Search, Language Bar, Links, Windows Media Player, Address. Some of them are TICKED some not.

On the other user account similar things should be in the list of that 'Toolbars', but recently things disappeared from that list only Quick Launch and Desktop is visible. If I put something there for example I enable the Language Bar in the Control Panel then that item appears in this list ticked. Fine, but once I untick, it disappears from the list (instead of staying there unticked). It's possible to make the language bar present from the Control Panel, but I dont care about Language Bar. The problem is that I can not enable the important items such alternative ways like NetSpeedMonitor.

So this just happened a few days ago and I also noticed this issue on another computer. Maybe this issue came with a Windows Update...

Any idea how to reset the toolbars to normal behavior so not only Desktop and Quick Launch appear there? (Registry maybe)

On my Windows XP Pro I have 2 user accounts. On one account everything works OK and this is how the good one works:

I right click on the XP taskbar and choose Toolbars and then I can see a list of things such as Desktop, Quick Launch, NetSpeedMonitor, Nero Search, Language Bar, Links, Windows Media Player, Address. Some of them are TICKED some not.

On the other user account similar things should be in the list of that 'Toolbars', but recently things disappeared from that list only Quick Launch and Desktop is visible. If I put something there for example I enable the Language Bar in the Control Panel then that item appears in this list ticked. Fine, but once I untick, it disappears from the list (instead of staying there unticked). It's possible to make the language bar present from the Control Panel, but I dont care about Language Bar. The problem is that I can not enable the important items such alternative ways like NetSpeedMonitor.

So this just happened a few days ago and I also noticed this issue on another computer. Maybe this issue came with a Windows Update...

Any idea how to reset the toolbars to normal behavior so not only Desktop and Quick Launch appear there? (Registry maybe)

Happy New Year!

Click to expand...

I think you are trying to misuse the Toolbar function. The more Toolbars you have, the more cluttered your Taskbar is going to get. The purpose of the Quick Launch Toolbar is to hold shortcuts to programs or app you access frequently. Create s shortcut using a right click> Send To> Desktop to create a shortcut.

Once it is there, you have a choice> leave it on the Desktop for easy access OR drag it into the Quick Launch Toolbar. Now, instead of having another Toolbar, you have 1 icon.